Design and Conservation (Including Listed Buildings)

Design is now firmly enshrined in national policy guidance as an integral part of the planning function.

Within the Planning Service, the design team upholds the quality of the natural and built environment. It covers a wide range of functions, encompassing the specialist professional disciplines of urban design, landscape architecture, building conservation and architecture. It includes statutory planning functions relating to Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas and also non-statutory planning functions, principally the provision of specialist advice and guidance in relation to development management and policy, together with a variety of wider corporate functions some closely planning-related but others less so, such as implementation of open space and capital schemes, and other corporate projects and initiatives.

Key responsibilities may be summarised as follows:

advising on environmental design issues at policy, development management and implementation stages;

initiating and implementing capital projects;

influencing and enabling developers, partners and other organisations to achieve agreed environmental objectives;

promoting understanding of the significance of environmental quality to the quality of life for the communities served by the Council.

Listed Building and Conservation Area advice is provided to the District by officers working for the New Forest National Park Authority. Through the Conservation and Listed Building links set out below, general advice can be obtained as to the need for consent and whether, if required, such consent is likely to be granted.

Within the district, NFDC is wholly responsible for 22 Conservation Areas, and jointly responsible with the New Forest National Park Authority for three of them. Excluding the area within the National Park, the district has approximately 900 Listed Buildings (a single listing can often cover more than one building or structure).